[Video]/[Action for Goldenrod]

[crouching_sin]

[The video opens on a young boy, maybe twelve or so, digging in the dirt in a park in Goldenrod. He's got on loose pants but no shirt, and his skin is tanned. He's also got messy brown hair, like he's never heard of a hairbrush.]

[He hasn't, they weren't invented yet.]

[He seems intent on what he's doing, other than muttering slightly.]

The ground here is strange... where are my tools? Mother... Father... Abel...

[The camera turns, revealing a very concerned-looking Gardevoir.]

He's been like this all morning. I... I'm fairly sure this is my trainer, but he looks very different. He doesn't recognize me, and it was hard enough to convince him I wasn't a 'demon' and that he should wear pants.

Can... can anyone help me? I'm not sure how to handle this on my own...

[[ooc; Anyone who wants to encounter them, they're in a park in Goldenrod!]]

Comments

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[Oh boy, it's a kid. This conversation is obviously going to be extremely helpful for poor Alice.]

Hi. You're pretty. Like, like a pretty dressie kind of Wart.

[EXTREMELY...HELPFUL...god.]

How come he didn't wanna wear pants?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Wart is a Gallade, isn't he? I... suppose that makes sense. And he kept saying the material was 'too smooth' but some of the others helped hold him down until he put them on.

That is you, isn't it, Dave? Is something wrong?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Uh-huh. It's me.

[He has to think about the question for a moment. Obviously something is wrong, he doesn't have to be a genius to figure out his memories don't match his size, but more telling have been everyone's reactions to him.]

I think there's a weird thing everywhere. I'm not asposed to be small, and everyone's yelling a lot. And Penny doesn't remmber me.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Oh. Oh, that would explain i -

[She pauses. The things she's picked up from her trainer...]

I think... he has gone back a very far way indeed.

[Dave please be following her logic.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[He doesn't get it for a minute, but then he does.]

That's Naoya?

[Oh boy.]

...Uh-oh.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Yes. 'Uh oh'. I don't know what to do, Dave.

... He doesn't want any of us near him. I don't know how to even make sure that he'll be all right...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Ummm.

[Dave is really not equipped to handle this right now. He's working on a four-year-old's processing power, for fuck's sake, and his memories are there but they're a little jumbled as a result.]

Do, do you have money? For getting food. He's gonna get hungry and I dunno if they i-ivvetted money back then.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Money... I think it's on his trainer card? It should be somewhere in here... I should get one of the others to help me, my fingers aren't as nimble as human fingers...

Are you all right, Dave? You're not hurt, are you?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

I fell out of a tree but Wart caughted me. And then I got Burger Slowking. But now nobody's lets me go outside by myself to play.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... They might be afraid you'll get hurt, especially if you fell out of a tree before...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

I fallen off lots higher places.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

That doesn't mean you should, Dave.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

...Why? I won't get hurt.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

If you fall out of a tree, you will probably get hurt.

[Her nerves are frazzled right now, Dave. Don't even try.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

I won't get hurt a lot. I won't cry.

[Because that's the issue here.]

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Dave Strider I will find you and wrap you entirely in foam if that is what it takes.

[Hell hath no fury like a Pokemom scorned, apparently.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[Dave just kind of squeaks and hunches into himself, hands over his mouth.]

O-okay, I won't. N...no more trees, I promise.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[Was that too much? That was probably too much.]

... I'm sorry, Dave. That was a bit... much. Things are just stressful right now.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[The apology just shifts him from agitation to puzzlement, like he can't make sense of it. Or like no one's ever apologized to him before. After a beat, he shakes his head. It's cool. They've got bigger problems.]

Is it 'cause Naoya's small?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Yes. And I don't know what to do with him.

[Naoya chooses that moment to look up at the creature and the strange device and then start wandering away from them.]

Where is he - Naoya? Naoya, come back here - please listen to me!

[She carries the Pokegear with her as she follows him.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[Maybe if he helps her, it'll make up for jumping out of trees.]

Naoya! Dude!

[...Though...wait.

...]

Cain?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[The boy looks up at the sound of his name.]

Cain?

[He heads over towards her, eyeing her warily.]

Who are you?

... I'm... I'm a friend.

[Help, Dave. She is not equipped for this.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

That's Alice. She's not a demon, she's like...more like an angel. Your guardian angel. I'nt she pretty?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Where is that voice coming from?

[Alice shows him the Pokegear and he gets up close to it, peering at it curiously.]

Be careful. It's a... um... a magical device.

Ah... angels are so very strange...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Yeah, there's lots of weird shit here. Hey, I'm Dave. I'm human, though.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... Weird... shit?

[Congratulations, baby Dave. You're teaching Cain how to swear.]

Ah... I thought there was just... us.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Oh. You're in the fu...the few...

...

You're forward a lot in time right now, so there's lots more people.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... How is that even possible?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Uh. When a daddy person and a mommy person love each other very much...

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... I mean how did I go forward a lot in time?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

...

Magic?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... I guess that makes sense.

[It's not like magic makes sense at all.]

I need to get back, though. I have work to do.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

At the candy store?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

What? I... I have to plant...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[Wait a second. Oh my god.]

You know about candy, right?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

About what?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[GASP.]

Alice, Alice go get him a...a ice cream, or something.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

But he hasn't eaten dinner yet.

What are you talking about?

... Most restaurants won't serve you if you don't have a shirt on, Dave.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

[Dave flings his hands up in tiny child dramatics.]

Go putton a shirt and get food so you can have a ice cream, dude! You have to have a ice cream, it's so good.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Why?

[He wants to know. Answer his questions.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

'Cause it's...it's cold and sweet and...and it's the only good thing anybody ever made out of milk. Besides cheese. Cheese is okay.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

I don't like milk. It's warm.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Nuh-uh, it's cold. I don't like milk either. But ice cream's awesome.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Why would milk be cold?

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

'Cause it goes in the fidge...refidger...the...the refrigeridgerator.

...

It makes stuff cold.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

I don't know what that is.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

It's a big box that you put food in and it makes it cold. And then you heat it up again by putting it in the mike...the mike-or-wave.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... That sounds like magic.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Nuh-uh. It's elec...electric. But I guess they don't have that when you're from. You can look in your house, I bet you got one.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[He just looks skeptically at Dave.]

None of these things look like my home.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

I mean where you wokened up.

[Duh.]

Alice knows where it is. And you can get a shirt, too.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[He looks over at Alice, and she nods.]

I can help. That's what I'm here for.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

I got one too. But mine's a boy. They're good.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

I thought angels didn't have genders.

Maybe not that you can see.

[She's going to need a very long nap after this.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Wart does. He's a boy. Wart, come say hi.

[Poor Wart looks exhausted when he peers into the camera.]

Hi.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[He peers at Wart, and then at Alice.]

Oh... that is different...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

He's like a knight, but Alice is more like...like a pretty lady. Do you know lots of girls?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... The only woman I know is my mother.

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

...Is she nice?

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Yes?

[Alice hesitates and shakes her head in the background. But it's not like Cain knows any better...]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

That's cool. I don't have a mom, I was just wonderin'.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

You don't?

[He looks at Alice, confused, but she doesn't seem to be helping, so he looks back at Dave.]

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Nope.

[And that appears to be all he intends to share on the matter without further prodding. Wart looks uneasy in the background.]

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

... Do I really have to put on a shirt? It's warm...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

There's shirts with no sleeves. I have one, see.

[Dave disappears for a second, leaving a bemused Wart to mind the 'Gear, and then comes back with the sleeveless shirt from the Birdkeeper trainer outfit, obviously several sizes too big for him.]

If you wear one like this you won't get hot.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

[Oh! He blinks and then nods, looking up at Alice.]

I think we might have something that fits you...

[Not that Naoya ever really wears that kind of thing, but maybe she can send Cassie out to buy one. As long as she covers her Zoroark tail...]

It's cooler inside, anyway. Aren't you hot from digging?

Yes...

[Video]

[knightoftimeout]

Alice is very smart so you'll be okay if you listen to her. Okay?

[Wart glances at Dave, then rolls his eyes a bit as if to say, "What am I, chopped liver?"]

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Well, she is an angel. Angels are smart.

[But he nods and hands the 'gear back to Alice.]

I think we should turn this off for now. Goodbye, Dave. Goodbye, Wart. ... And thank you.

[She bows her head, and then flicks the 'gear off.]